Why Try Scuba Diving Part #2 - My Love For Scuba Diving

Robbie Wyckoff
on February 14th, 2018

Photo Courtesy of Tourism Tropical North Queensland

Hey it’s me Robbie writing for Barrier Reef Australia about how I came to love scuba diving and went on to become a full time PADI Open Water Scuba Dive Instructor who now travels the planets oceans and amazing underwater world and why I urge you to give scuba diving a go too!

Welcome to my “Why Try Scuba Diving” blog number 2, if you have not yet read blog number 1 just click here.

Photo Courtesy of Tourism Tropical North Queensland

That same year, after having done my first dive in a shark filled aquarium in Korea, my girlfriend and I took our first trip together abroad. We decided to travel to a popular destination in Thailand. Phi Phi Island, in southern Thailand, and this is where I became a certified open water diver.

The resort where we stayed at, offered PADI diving courses from a lovely German couple, whom of both spoke perfect English. They were much older than us but very experienced and extremely professional.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember my instructor’s name, but rather that she was quite fond of me and it made my girlfriend jealous as she took many underwater photos of myself while my lady felt I was receiving too much attention.

Now my girlfriend was already a certified scuba diver as she had completed her PADI open water course at home a few years back. I was simply doing mine as to be an equal, on a diving level of course, with her.

As she was certified to 18m, I was limited to just 12m being an uncertified diver and I decided that I just needed those additional 6m to be on the same page as my partner.

So on the first day of my dive course, we began by diving in the resort swimming pool.

I paid the extra money to have this documented via photo shoot and they were well worth it. My instructor performed each skill and I simply had to repeat them.

The skills we performed are referred to as confined water 1 - 5 and because I was so comfortable doing them, we managed to do each skill necessary for me to begin my open water dives the following morning.

The next day we met up with our instructors and headed to the beach where the speed boat was docked.

Now open water dives refer to just that, open water i.e the ocean. As I was with two instructors and my girlfriend, I didn’t feel at all nervous nor would I dare show it even if I had been because my lady was present.

Photo Courtesy of Tourism Tropical North Queensland

The boat ride was roughly about 30 minutes before coming to another beautiful island.

The first dive was completed inside the lagoon/ beach area within the island. The second dive was done on the outside of the island.

This was done as to assess my comfort in open water and I was limited to just 12m for the first two dives.

The following day, I was allowed to do my last two dives of my open water course at a depth of 18m.

The skills we performed were the same that I had completed already in the confined pool sessions on the first day.

Had we not done the confined water dives first, I wouldn’t have felt so comfortable in the open water portion of the course.

I was now ready and pumped to begin my scuba diving adventures and begin to explore the oceans depths.

Robbie Wyckoff

Hi my name is Robbie Wyckoff and I am a full time PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Instructor who now works all over the world teaching people how to scuba dive and discover the amazing underwater world on our planet.

Man, the things you do for your girl!
In saying that I am fortunate enough to have a beautiful gal who grew up in the great Australian outdoors and that means she loves to get me out in the country and show me all the fun things to do...

Man, the things you do for your girl!
In saying that I am fortunate enough to have a beautiful gal who grew up in the great Australian outdoors and that means she loves to get me out in the country and show me all the fun things to do...

How long does it take to get to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns? It very well may seem like a simple and easy question to answer, however, there are so many variables that make the answer not quite as straight forward as you may have initially thought.

No matter whether you are a snorkeller or a certified scuba diver, there are number of amazing Great Barrier Reef experiences that are a once in a lifetime absolutely ‘must do’.
And a Minke Whale snorkel and dive Expedition is one of those that should be on your list!